National CPS News Archive

National News Coverage

A CONFIDENTIAL Treasury memo reveals there is no cap on the number of public sector redundancies in NSW, paving the way for job cuts extending beyond the 10,000 announced in the state budget.

While school teachers, nurses and police have been quarantined, the memo makes it clear there are no limits on the removal of other front-line workers. People delivering child protection and disability services, national parks officers, firefighters, paramedics, teachers aides and TAFE teachers will be among the many exposed to job cuts.

Urgent reforms of the residential care system in England to protect children from sexual abuse have been announced by the government following an in-depth report into child exploitation.

Julie, not her real name, was placed in care at the age of 11, where she remained until she was 18, staying in a combination of foster homes and children's homes. Now 19, she has spoken to Newsnight about her experiences of sexual exploitation. I started running away because I didn't want to go home. If it was in the children's home I didn't want to go back because of the staff or the kids, or I just wanted to stay out. If it was in foster care I just didn't want to be in the home because it wasn't my home.

It should come as little surprise that when some children have their backs against the wall - for anything from failing to do homework to staying out too late at night - they don't always respond to parental discipline.

While some kids might be content to throw a tantrum or scream, "You're being so unfair, Dad!" other, more-troublesome ones might think they have a trump card to play - calling child protective services. If your child ever thinks he or she has the upper hand by threatening to call 911, here are a few tips to diffuse the situation.

Cape Town Child Welfare says finding good foster parents for children who have been abused or neglected remains a constant challenge.

Cape Town Child Welfare's Niresh Ramklaas said: "Because of the economy it's always difficult to take additional children into your home. The Foster Care Grant is not that big so in spite of the grant, we expect them to put a lot in, to make sure these children are fine."

Guam - The national statistics are alarming: more than five children die every day as a result of child abuse and most of those children are under the age of 4.

"For Guam, I believe that sexual abuse comes third in ranking from physical abuse to physical neglect to sexual abuse," said Lydia Tenorio, administrator for Child Protective Services. Even more frightening, the statistics indicate that most all juvenile sexual abuse victims know their perpetrator in some way. "I think that the community needs to know that it's no longer who you don't know but who you do know," she said.

Three years ago, Mirko and Regina Ceska of Crawfordville, FLA told former Gov. Charlie Crist their two adopted 12-year-olds had been prescribed 11 pills a day, including the powerful antipsychotic Seroquel, reported the Tampa Bay Times.

Three years ago, Mirko and Regina Ceska of Crawfordville, FLA told former Gov. Charlie Crist their two adopted 12-year-olds had been prescribed 11 pills a day, including the powerful antipsychotic Seroquel, reported the Tampa Bay Times.

As a political science major at Ohio State University, Ida Seitter says, she lit up many a cigarette to help her through the stress of exam season. Right or wrong, they were her security blanket as she toiled through college.

Seitter, now 26, was old enough by then to make her own decisions, she says. She opposes efforts by policymakers in Ohio, New York, California and other states to impose bans on tobacco use not just in buildings at public colleges, but also anywhere on the campus - even in the open air.

The American education system seems to be increasingly scrutinized. Amidst bullying, budget cuts, No Child Left Behind, teacher flight, and declining national rankings, a growing minority of parents are choosing to homeschool their child.

According to the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES), the percentage of the homeschooled school-aged population increased 74 percent over an eight-year period, growing from 1.7% in 1999 to 2.9% in 2007. Moreover, some recent reports estimate that the current homeschooling level has risen to four percent, with the number of primary school homeschooled students growing seven times faster in relation to annual K-12 enrollment.

Scientific evidence does not support rolling out vaccines against the Human Papilloma Virus (HPV) in the general population, British researchers have warned India. HPV is linked to cervical cancer.

Pending a final decision, the vaccines are being aggressively promoted through doctors, social media and publicity campaigns by drug companies - GSK and Merck. PATH, a charity supported by Bill Gates, is also keen to promote the two vaccines in India.

A report into the death of nearly 200 young people in contact with child-protection services has been described as "deeply shocking".

The study, which was carried out by the Independent Child Death Review Group, was published today. It provides the first definitive account of how the State interacted with 196 young people who died while in contact with protection services between 2000 and 2010.

A review of child protection services says a root and branch reform of the system in Ireland is required.

The review was presented to the government before Christmas. Between 2000 and 2010 112 of the children died of non-natural causes including drug overdoses, suicides and unlawful killings. The review says that while significant work has been done to improve the service and while there is elements of good practice its application is sporadic and inconsistent.

A sea of T-shirts and signs honouring children who have died in foster care flooded a Saskatoon park today.

"What's going on right now is the new residential school, so many native kids in foster care," said Chris Martell, father of Evander Lee Daniels, who died in the care of a foster parent nearly two years ago.

A new report published in the journal Pediatrics shows that the number of parents delaying or limiting their children's vaccinations more than tripled from 2006 to 2009.

Over the three-year period, researchers found that by age nine months, non-limiter children had received 10.4 shots on average, compared with limiters and episodic limiters who received 6.4 total shots on average. The primary reason for altering vaccination schedules is fear of adverse reactions when vaccines are received simultaneously.

WHILE THE Independent Child Death Review Group points to a litany of failures surrounding many of the 196 cases it reviewed, the report also points to cases where social workers, foster families and social work departments engaged in good practice.

It found that in 17 of 128 cases where children and young people were known to the HSE, its social work department had reacted quickly and appropriately to concerns about families and maintained contact despite evasiveness by parents at times.

A former Lac La Biche foster parent and foster-care supervisor was sentenced to six months in jail Wednesday after he was convicted of possessing child pornography.

Daniel Quiring Stoesz, 63, pleaded guilty to the charge in a St. Paul courtroom. A second charge of distribution of child pornography was withdrawn. At the time of his arrest in December 2011, Stoesz worked for Alberta's Ministry of Human Services in a middle-management position in which he supervised support workers who then dealt directly with foster parents. He had worked for regional foster services in St. Paul for more than 10 years.

Authorities in the former communist nation of Bulgaria are reportedly persecuting a pastor and his family over their decision to homeschool, prompting an international outcry among home-education advocates who are calling on officials.

The matter is even more urgent now as the father has been criminally charged with "child abuse" for removing his son from government school, according to activist groups and news reports. Pastor Yavor Kostov from the town of Vidin decided in February to withdraw his 13-year-old son from the state's education system because of brutal bullying, the U.S.-based Home School Legal Defense Association (HSLDA) and local media reported. While researching various international distance-learning programs, the family decided to educate the boy at home by themselves.

California Certified Organic Farmers and Oregon Tilth, two of the nation's largest third-party organic certification agencies, are joining forces in hopes of raising the visibility and consolidating the clout of West Coast organic farming.

A merger was approved by the boards of directors of both groups. Members of both organizations will be asked to ratify the merger before Oct. 31. Once approved, the new organization - CCOF Tilth - will be the nation's largest such group in the $31 billion organic agriculture industry. Farmers and food processors who currently use CCOF or Oregon Tilth labels on their products will be allowed to continue. A new CCOF Tilth label will be released this fall. The consolidation will affect more than 100 organic farming operations in the Sacramento region, and more than 2,200 statewide.

NOIDA: A day after police arrested a software engineer for allegedly torturing and forcibly keeping a 14-year-old girl captive in her Sector 62 flat, the minor underwent a medical examination to ascertain her age.

Even though the prime accused in the case, Meenakshi Bhardwaj, a software engineer who works for a technology firm in Gurgaon, claimed the charges levied against her are baseless, the police said the girl had a number of extremely serious injuries and burn marks across her body.

New Delhi: India's juvenile justice system has not been effective in safeguarding the rights of half a million street children in the capital, according to various enforcement agencies

This situation exists despite implementation of the landmark Juvenile Justice Act (Care and Protection of Children) in 2000. Representatives of concerned agencies met on Saturday to take stock of the state of the juvenile justice system in the capital.

The Delhi High Court has ordered the authorities concerned to ensure inspection of all children's home in the city and provision of safer and better living conditions for the residents.

A division bench headed by Justice S Ravindra Bhat has asked the Delhi government to tighten its supervision of functioning of various welfare bodies, especially the Child Welfare Committees, and guarantee that all children are secure from any harm.

A California judge's decision to open a county's child welfare hearings earlier this year has energized a debate among advocates in other states about whether greater transparency helps or harms the young victims appearing in family court.

When a child is abused or neglected, there's a family court hearing to discuss the victim's future. In nearly 20 states, including Texas, New York, Florida and Illinois, those hearings are usually open to the public and there is a push among child welfare advocates to open them in other states. Efforts to open the courts in California, Kentucky and the District of Columbia have garnered attention recently.

The global health strategy to expand childhood immunizations, largely backed by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, is too focused on new vaccines and neglects the fundamental need to improve basic public health and immunization programs.

So says Medicins Sans Frontieres (MSF), aka Doctors Without Borders, in a new report issued today by the organization entitled The Right Shot: Extending the Reach of Affordable and Adapted Vaccines. The medical relief and aid advocacy organization is critical of a new, 10-year, multi-billion dollar "Global Vaccines Action Plan" expected to be adopted by global health leaders at the World Health Assembly meeting next week. The plan is largely funded by the Gates Foundation.

Last week, Facebook launched its IPO and is now a publicly-traded company. Mark Zuckerberg and his pals are all gazillionaires. And, who do they have to thank, in part, for their profound wealth? Moms.

Funny thing is, although we moms love to use Facebook, it seems that not everyone loves us using it. While we're busy uploading picture of our cutie patooties, others are busy condemning us for over-sharing, or "oversharenting" as Steven Leckert at the Wall Street Journal recently said in an article about parents and Facebook. In the article, he claims that when it comes to his son and the internet, he and his wife are going to practice abstinence. No pictures, no status updates, nada. But, for most of us, parenting and Facebook go hand in hand.

Ron Paul supporters have a plan. As they doggedly work the Republican system from the ground up, electing more of their team as delegates to the Republican National Convention, they have a heavyweight plan that's markedly different from the rumors.

"We want to change the Republican Party," said Chris Stearns, the Virginia state director for the Ron Paul campaign. "We are making sure our people get in positions of leadership -- in the nation, in their state, in their county and city, all the way down to the grass roots level." Libertarians such as Stearns aspire to nothing less than the kind of bottom-to-top takeover that proved so successful for the religious right and anti-abortion forces in the 1980s. Many of the men and women who swept into local party office then inhabit top rungs of the GOP now. And similar to that movement, Ron Paul and his campaigners for liberty are looking down the road.